Chapter 20: The Fangs Below

  Following the team leader will definitely be fine!

  These members of the Knights Templar comforted themselves in this way, and even they themselves did not realize that they had already begun to lose courage.

  They chased each other and soon disappeared beside this sentry post.

  Only the wooden house that was burned into ruins and six corpses around it were left.

  And obviously, this is not the final result——

  As he sprinted forward, Pots quickly realized that due to his superhuman speed, he had opened up an inappropriate distance with his subordinates. However, looking at Dean not far ahead, he didn't care about these things. He had already vowed to personally behead him and would absolutely not allow him to escape.

  So his pursuit speed did not slow down, but instead became faster and faster.

  However, the commander of the Knights of Fechal soon discovered something was amiss.

  The other person's speed was unexpectedly no slower than his, and in some ways even a bit faster!

  How is this possible?

  He's just a lowly apprentice knight, how can he possibly be faster than me!

  Bo's subconscious doubts caused his body to pause for a moment, and in that moment, Dean's speed in front of him was getting faster and faster, as if flying into the dense forest on one side, disappearing after a few flashes.

  "This...this..."

  Potts stared in shock at the speed that shouldn't have been possessed by a novice knight, standing still on the spot.

  ……

  Hoo... Hoo... Hoo...

  The wind by his ear, mixed with snowflakes and ice crystals, Dean was like a spirit monkey, jumping through the tree branches - of course, if it were just relying on his own ability, with Dean's current physical condition, he would not be able to complete such an action. What he relied on was the iron nails that had been nailed to the tree trunk beforehand, and the ropes extending from these nails, which he tightly grasped in his hand at this moment.

  With the help of these ropes, Dean quickly opened up a gap with Captain Potts - in fact, these ropes took up quite a bit of time during the six-day preparation period. After all, every time Dean nailed a rope, he had to climb up and down and test its sturdiness.

  However, such a time-consuming effort was also quite worthwhile. After another few wanderings, Dean thoroughly disappeared from the sight of that Captain Potts!

  Although the two sides had pulled open a real distance, Dean was very clear that such a 'trick' could not be hidden forever. His opponent would soon discover the inconsistencies after the initial surprise - Potts could become the captain of the Ficharen Knights, and for so many years, he had been eating empty salaries, and from time to time, pretending to be a barbarian thief to rob merchant teams. Even with the help of others, his own ability was not to be underestimated.

  Especially Dean, who had been taught by the other party several times in his memory, would not underestimate the other party. Even if he now has the upper hand, everything is just a temporary advantage before thoroughly defeating the other party, and it's not the final result!

  In order to smoothly take down the opponent, it is necessary to clear away the claws and teeth around them. This is also Dein's ultimate goal in creating distance from the opponent - after all, a true knight like Dein already has unmatched strength; if he were to add a team of knight attendants, his chances of winning would be completely gone.

  Even now, with only five of those knight attendants remaining, it's still the same!

  To take down Pots, we must first take down these five knight attendants!

  The wind in the Til Ridge area grew stronger at night, especially near the snowy forest. The snowflakes blurred people's vision as the cold wind howled. However, Dein, who had deliberately chosen this route, quickly discovered his target - in a relatively open area between the trees, it wasn't too difficult to find five people, especially since they were wearing dark leather armor, which stood out starkly against the snowy backdrop.

  Dein, who had stopped on a tree trunk not far from the top of his opponent's head, raised his crossbow and locked onto his target.

  Whoosh!

  One arrow pierced the target's chest, with blood spurting out; immediately followed by a second arrow, also hitting the mark with even greater precision than the first, due to Dean's deliberate adjustment, and went straight through the knight's throat.

  "Uh, uh......"

  Covering his own throat, this knight who had repeatedly spoken sarcastically and crossed swords with Dean, wanted to say something at the moment of his death, but ultimately didn't say anything, and after twitching a few times, he stopped moving altogether.

  At this time, the remaining Knights Templar members finally reacted from the situation where their companions were suddenly attacked again. They looked at Dean jumping down from mid-air and shouted loudly: "Here!"

  And greeting such a shout, was a bright sword light - from the high place jumping down Dein, left hand still tightly grasping that rope, and then the body brought out inertia, right hand long sword drew a perfect semicircle, swept across the neck of the Knights' member closest to him.

  Hmph!

  The skull soared high into the air, and with a clarity greater than ever before, the sound of splattering blood echoed out once more.

  And this seemed to be the last straw that crushed the remaining two Knights' nerves, they panicked and shouted loudly, turning around and running away.

  Not even having the courage to resist.

  One after another, they were ambushed, and their companions fell one by one. Especially the last sword that beheaded someone, seeing the dead eyes of their companion, it was clear that these Ficharen Knights who used to be arrogant had already lost their nerve. And when they saw the young noble whom they originally looked down upon, they seemed to have seen a bloodthirsty devil - just like those merchant guards they had plundered before, at this moment they wished they could run faster or grow two more legs.

  Because they all knew that although the crossbow was very powerful, the time it took to reload was quite long, and this period of time was enough for them to run a considerable distance, even to meet up with their squad leader.

  As for close combat?

  Stop joking, that one sword beheading skill is enough to show that the small noble in front of them has considerable strength in close combat!

  At least much stronger than them.

  What about the previous sword fight?

  Even an idiot can now discover that this little aristocrat has done it on purpose!

  So they turned around and ran without hesitation.

  However, because of this haste, none of them noticed that behind Dean was a longbow - a longbow that Dean had deliberately hidden among the trees and had just picked up.

  Whoosh! Whoosh!

  Two arrows shot out, accurately hitting the target - both were shot from the neck exposed outside the armor and entered, bloody arrowheads pierced the throat, causing two corpses with inertia to rush forward for several steps before falling to the ground.

  For Dean, compared to the crossbow and longsword, he was more skilled with a bow and arrow. Even in his current body, he could accurately hit a rabbit within fifty paces, let alone two large living people; and if his strength were to increase further, this distance would undoubtedly increase again.

  【XP+3】

  【XP+3】

  ……

  Five consecutive light spheres merged into Dean's body.

  【XP：44】

  After watching ten of the Knights Templar members get wiped out, Dean accumulated experience. Listening to the rapid approaching boots and trampling snow, as well as Captain Poch's urgent and exasperated cries, Dean climbed up the tree trunk again and opened his skill bar.

  Looking at the skills in the skill bar, Dean quickly allocated his experience.

  Basic Swordsmanship Lv1 → Lv2

  Cold weapon (sword/mace/spear) Lv1→Lv2

  Military Swordsmanship Lv1 → Lv2

  Except for the last one being an application skill, the remaining [Basic Swordsmanship] and [Cold Weapon (Sword/Hammer/Spear)] are all basic skills of this profession. The basic skills cost 10 XP to upgrade from Lv1 to Lv2, while the application skills cost 20 XP.

  So at this time, Dean has accumulated experience again and returned to the single digit [XP: 4]; however, the cost of 40 experience points is the most intuitive change.

  Basic Swordsmanship Lv2: Perhaps you will gain your own insight from it, but most of the time, it's just basic; Effect: When using sword-type weapons, gain +5% damage, hit rate, and block rate.

  【Cold Weapon (Sword/Mace/Spear) Lv2: In the military camp, every warrior receives training in applicable weapons; Effect: In combat, when using a sword/mace/spear as a weapon, Strength and Agility gain +0.1 judgment.】

  Military Swordsmanship Lv2 (Jade): You received the most rigorous training in the military camp, giving your swordsmanship a national characteristic; Effect: When attacked, can make Agility +0.2 judgment; Duration 3.2 (Constitution x2) seconds; Cooldown 33 (50 - Constitution x10) minutes.

  (Xiti, Gao Sai, Bai Ye are in a state of deficiency)

  ……

  The melancholy and dismal PS is asking everyone for a collection and recommendation~~~